1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an actuator control system including an operation control apparatus that controls operation of a device driven by an actuator by generating a command signal for commanding operation of the device, and an actuator control apparatus that controls the actuator in accordance with the command signal.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, actuator control systems including an operation control apparatus that controls operation of a device driven by an actuator by generating a command signal for commanding operation of the device, and an actuator control apparatus that controls the actuator in accordance with the command signal are known (for example, see JP 2006-240612A). JP 2006-240612A discloses an actuator control system that controls operation of a control surface (operation of a device) of an aircraft. This actuator control system includes an FCC (Flight Control Computer) serving as an operation control apparatus and an ACE (Actuator Control Electronics) serving as an actuator control apparatus. Note that the ACE is provided as an actuator control apparatus that controls a cylinder actuator, which is an actuator that drives a control surface.
The actuator control apparatus of the system disclosed in JP 2006-240612A is provided with a control portion (31) serving as a digital computing portion that generates a control signal for controlling operation of the actuator in accordance with a command signal for commanding operation of the control surface that is generated by the operation control apparatus. This actuator control apparatus is further provided with a monitoring portion (41) serving as a digital computing portion that monitors an abnormality relating to actuation of the actuator control apparatus. This monitoring portion is configured to perform the same process as the above-described control portion. This provides a configuration that enables monitoring of the occurrence of a generic failure, that is, a failure that may occur commonly among the same pieces of software or hardware. In addition, the actuator control apparatus of JP 2006-240612A is also provided with a backup control portion that is configured by an analog circuit and that generates the above-described control signal.
With the actuator control apparatus disclosed in JP 2006-240612A, a generic failure is monitored by providing the monitoring portion that performs the same process as the control portion that generates a control signal for controlling operation of the actuator. However, this actuator control apparatus requires the control portion and the monitoring portion serving as the digital computing portions performing the same processes, which leads to an increase in the number of constituting components. For this reason, it is difficult to realize further simplification and streamlining of the configuration of the actuator control system.